Tuesday, November 11, 2014

How #37 Reloaded came about and exposure pt 1

Boy oh boy, this has been a very stressful and draining week both physically but more so mentally. There is so much to talk about and a few things that need some explanation and clarification. The first situation I would like to discuss our upcoming tournament "#37 Reloaded." For those of you who do not know what this is, this is a tournament celebrating what is known as "Evo Moment #37." The reason this moment is heralded as the moment Street Fighter was brought into the general public's eye. Aside from the fact this was a display of tremendous skill under the highest levels of pressure, it also showed a truly genuine crowd reaction and illustrates our community's love for fighting games. This event occurred 10 years ago, and as a celebration in a sense, we are hosting this event in the exact same location where this magic happened. The two players involved, Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, will both be in attendance and competing in the lineup of games we have already set. There will also be a friendly exhibition match between both of them just for old times sake.

Okay, enough description as I'm sure you all get the point :) So this event was originally planned a few months before Evo 2014 even took place. The original idea was to call this event "Evo Throwback" and to run the games that Evo ran that year. I talked to one of the staff of SRK about running this and we were working on the idea that I would be the one handling all the grunt work and the event, while SRK would be responsible for advertising and taking registration. So as time goes on I go and get info in regards to venue sizing and costs, then I come back with the numbers so we can start planning on the next steps. Throughout this ordeal I was constantly being called a lagger while I was the one out running around and doing work. I was sitting here taking this dude's bs before the project was even off the ground. It gets more and more ridiculous so please bear with me. So as we inch closer to Evo I was asked to put everything into an email and make this a formal proposal. His excuse was, "We are corporate now and this is just how things run Mike." Okay, no problem chief, we want to make this legit, I totally get it and it's not a problem... Email sent, no real progress after, just a few phone calls to make sure we are still on the same page. So, Evo comes around, no word about the tournament at all during Evo, no mention of anything. But hey, why bother advertising a gaming event at the world's largest gaming event? That would be useless right? I'll go more into that story later on. So anyways, no announcement, not a mention of anything, then I ask about it and was told, "Evo is corporate, we cannot associate with Super Arcade's image, I'm sure you understand." Whoa nelly....... So you ask me to get all these things done, we plan this stuff out, you even ask me to make a formal proposal, then you just go and drop me this and expect me to let it go? This is where the "power trips" start coming into play and I will go into much detail with other various examples and experiences. So tourney is off and obviously I'm a bit frustrated. A lot of stuff also went on during Evo weekend that led to even more drama to this, so there is a reason to all the build up. So I am leaving Las Vegas and I decide to give MarkMan a call. Mark is the PR for MadCatz and is my connection to having Daigo attend our tournament. I spend some time with him on the phone discussing our tourney and ideas and things seem to be going well. I then bring up the fact that I am having issues with one of the Evo staff members and ask if this will be an issue. I am assured it won't so we continue on further discussions take place throughout the week to book Daigo for #37Reloaded. After I settle the issue of getting Daigo here, my next step is to talk to the Cannon brothers and get their seal of approval. I call Tom and ask him if he heard about the tourney I was planning and he replied no, then asked me to tell him about it...... So here is the issue. I spent time talking to Wizard for months about this and the idea was never even brought up to the other members of SRK's staff? Wizard went on to make this decision alone and shot me down without ever giving it a chance? Now thats some garbage right there. Wasted my time, wasted my effort, and basically just dicked me around for the fun of it. Congrats on being an asshat dude. You really do take the cake, and I'm just getting started. Ok, so back to the phone call with Tom Cannon. He asks me to fill him in on the idea and soon as I'm done he replies, "So when is this happening?" Instantly this man likes the idea yet it was never run by him..... The creator of SRK likes my idea, but it never saw the light of day because one person was so selfish he would rather put me down and not let something like this happen. There is a trend here, and I promise by the end of my next few stories and posts, you will all start to see it. I continue to tell Tom that I'm sorry, but this won't be a SRK/Super Arcade event anymore, and I am just giving him a courtesy call to let him know this and also ask for permission to use their footage from previous tourneys. He agrees with the only stipulation being I do not use the Evo logo anywhere. Done and done. Thank you Tom.

So you guys fathom all this, take some time to just breath and think to yourself, have you been in any situation or heard any stories about Wizard doing something to your disliking. I'll be back with more fuel to the fire so stick around. It might be a fun ride.